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TO: Wisconsin’s Land Trust Community
FROM: Althea Dotzour, Policy Coordinator, Gathering Waters Conservancy
RE: Federal Senate Finance Committee hearing on land conservation
scheduled for June 8
Congress continues to look at making changes to
the laws affecting land trusts. In fact, the Senate Finance Committee
is scheduled to conduct a hearing on land conservation on June 8.
Since the drastic Joint Committee on Taxation
proposals were announced in January, the unprecedented grassroots
response from the land trust community has had measurable results.
I traveled to Washington DC in April and received positive feedback
from Congressman Obey, Green, Ryan, and Congresswoman Baldwin. Congressman
Ryan, a member of the Ways and Means Committee, was particularly
informed and interested in ensuring that conservation easements
remain strong tools for land conservation. Thanks to the good work
of the Geneva Lake Conservancy in helping to educate and involve
Congressman Ryan in the past. This is a great example of the importance
of well-informed legislators.
Thanks to the work of the land conservation community,
the Land Trust Alliance is cautiously optimistic that the dialogue
in Washington has shifted from the JCT proposals to alternative
ways to prevent abuses. Now we face the perilous task of helping
policy makers define those alternatives and trying to ensure that
whatever is put into place doesn't hurt conservation, but helps
it.
The Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing
on conservation donations on June 8th. We expect some of the witnesses
to highlight abuses of the tax incentives for conservation. Rand
Wentworth of the Land Trust Alliance has been invited to testify
at the hearing, and he plans to focus on the value of private land
conservation and the land trust community's commitment to the highest
ethical standards.
We have made major progress in the last five months.
When the JCT report came out, the committee staff were considering
a variety of punitive proposals such as prohibiting the board members
of a land trust from donating an easement to the trust and requiring
land trusts to certify the value of each donation. We believe that
the committee staff have set these ideas aside. LTA supports stronger
standards for appraisals and increased penalties for exaggerated
appraisals. But Congress is still considering a wide range of options
for changes to the law, and we still are unsure of what specific
recommendations they will make at the hearing.
Your Help Is Needed!
The Senate Finance Committee hearing is a bit over a week away.
That means you still have the opportunity to help make sure that
Congress and the public understand the value of private land conservation,
by working with your local newspaper to place articles and opinion
pieces that showcase the outstanding conservation work that you
do. If you would like help with this, please contact me or email
ProtectPrivateConservation@lta.org.
If you have asked your Senators or Congressmen
to weigh in on this issue, now would be good time to ask them to
send a letter to the Finance Committee for inclusion in the hearing
record supporting the work land trusts do in their state and opposing
the recommendations of the JCT on conservation donations. Gathering
Waters Conservancy is working with the DNR and the Governor's office
to solicit a letter of support from Governor Doyle.
Thank you so much for all that you have done so
far. In the immediate aftermath of the JCT recommendations, the
land trust community has done a tremendous amount of work to educate
Congress about the harmful effects of those proposals. But we still
have a lot of work ahead of us, as the details of new reform proposals,
once unveiled, will be important to all of us.
For more Information
Feel free to contact Gathering Waters Conservancy for more information.
I also urge you to visit the Land Trust Alliance’s website
at www.lta.org for
more resources and updates.
Thanks to all you do to encourage land conservation!
Althea
Sample
letters from other US Senators and Governors (on LTA's website)
To learn more about this issue, visit
the Land Trust Alliance's policy website.
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